NSA Surveillance Not Just About Terrorism

Information first shared with DEA, now IRS.       Add the IRS to the list of federal agencies obtaining information from NSA surveillance. Reuters reports that the IRS got intelligence tips from DEA's secret unit (SOD) and were also told to cover up the source of that information by coming up with their own independent leads to recreate the      ... MORE

Education Spending Soars As Test Scores Stagnate

by Deroy Murdock.     “If you think education is expensive, wait until you see how much ignorance costs in the 21st century,” Obama declared July 24 at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. “If we don’t make this investment, we’ll put our kids, our workers, and our country at a competitive disadvantage for decades.” Obama’s latest demand ... MORE

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - Deficits, Debt And Moral Decline

Steve Chapman: TSA's Inept Bureaucracy Mindlessly Grows

Just like its close relative, the cancer cell.        If you're an air traveler who feels the urge to pull your hair out every time you enter a security line at the airport, you may have considered taking Amtrak or even the bus instead. If so, you may want to scratch that idea. The Transportation Security Administration, you see, is showing up in ... MORE

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Why I Changed My Mind On Weed

A doctor undertakes to study the issue.       Over the last year, I have been working on a new documentary called "Weed." The title "Weed" may sound cavalier, but the content is not. I traveled around the world to interview medical leaders, experts, growers and patients. I spoke candidly to them, asking tough questions. What I found was stunning.    ... MORE

VIDEO: Radley Balko Discusses Militarization Of Police


How politicians have laid the foundation for a police state.

Jefferson Paine: The Deception Of Minimum Wage Laws

An effective tool for political manipulation.       Government does not create wealth -- it merely taxes and consumes it. It may create 'government jobs' but it cannot create real wealth. Governments specialize in bureaucracy and welfare. Real wealth is created by real jobs profitably producing things of value in the marketplace.      ... MORE

Ken Allard: Generous Second Coat Of Benghazi Whitewash

More White House tactical air support from CNN.      CNN spent an hour of prime time Tuesday night to air a special anchored by Erin Burnett, “The Truth about Benghazi.” They claimed to have learned two vital lessons from their supposedly extensive investigation of that tragedy: It must never happen again, and politics trumped      ... MORE

Domestic Spying Is Dangerous To Freedom

by Andrew Napolitano.    How is it that the government can charge Edward Snowden with espionage for telling a journalist that the feds have been spying on all Americans and many of our allies, but the NSA itself, in a public relations campaign intended to win support for its lawlessness, can reveal secrets and do so with impunity? That question goes  ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: You Phone Is A Pocket Rat

Court approves warrantless cellphone tracking.      Last month the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that police generally need a warrant to obtain information about the locations of cellphone users. Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit said just the opposite. The first decision was based on Article I, Paragraph 7 of the New      ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Currency Devaluation & The Bitcoin

The Surveillance Reforms Supported By Candidate Obama

by Kara Brandeisky.     When the House of Representatives recently considered an amendment that would have dismantled the NSA’s bulk phone records collection program, the White House swiftly condemned the measure. But only five years ago, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. was part of a group of legislators that supported substantial changes to NSA  ... MORE

Michael F. Cannon: Congress's ObamaCare Waiver

Buying votes from Congress with stolen money.     America has a two-party system. But it’s not Republicans versus Democrats. It’s the ruling class — Republicans and Democrats — against everyone else. Consider how President Obama just gave Congress its very own Obamacare waiver. Obamacare includes a provision that should cost each    ... MORE

VIDEO: Obama To Leno: "There Is No Spying On Americans"


Unbelievable quote comes 47 seconds in.
Proof that lies are best delivered confidently and with a straight face.

Robert Zubrin: Give Snowden Immunity

The truth will set us free.     The United States should give former NSA contractor Edward Snowden immunity from prosecution in exchange for congressional testimony. The suggestion may strike many of my fellow national-security conservatives as outrageous. Snowden certainly violated the law and may have committed treason. But the     ... MORE

John Stossel: Climate Change Myths

#1. Government is competent to fix the problem.       Global average temperature has been flat for a decade. But frightening myths about global warming continue. We're told there are more hurricanes now. We're told that hurricanes are stronger. But the National Hurricane Center says it isn't so. Meteorologist Maria Molina told me it's not       ... MORE

U.S. Debt Obligations Reach $70 Trillion

by Wynton Hall.    A new study by University of California-San Diego economics professor James Hamilton finds that the United States has over $70 trillion in off-balance sheet liabilities--an amount nearly six times the on-balance-sheet debt figure. The Treasury debt outstanding is $16.74 trillion. Of that, $4.84 trillion is money the U.S. owes itself.      ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Busybody Politics

Politics doesn't solve old problems, it creates new ones.    It is hard to read a newspaper, or watch a television newscast, without encountering someone who has come up with a new "solution" to society's "problems." Sometimes it seems as if there are more solutions than there are problems. On closer scrutiny, it turns out that many of     ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Keep Nuclear Weapons Out Of Iran

Ron Nixon: TSA Expands To Railroad Stations And Beyond

Government expands its warrantless search program.     As hundreds of commuters emerged from Amtrak and commuter trains at Union Station on a recent morning, an armed squad of men and women dressed in bulletproof vests made their way through the crowds. The squad was not with the D.C. Police Department or Amtrak’s      ... MORE

The Truth About Southern States And Nullification

by John Lambert.     Slavery was a morally corrupt and abhorrent institution that should have never existed. No question. No debate. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about nullification’s history in the Southern states prior to the Civil War. Over time, a Paul Bunyan type myth has grown suggesting that the Southern     ... MORE

VIDEO: George Will Sides With Rand Paul, Not Chris Christie


Rand Paul's stand with the Constitution appreciated by some.

Texas Police Use Cavity Searches To Check Women For Pot

by Ian Millhiser.    A pair of videos posted online show police probing the genitals and anal regions of three women they claim to suspect of possessing marijuana. In one video, a woman is seen bent over and grimacing as an off camera police officer conducts the search. Shortly before this search, a male officer explains to the woman that he   ... MORE

Sheldon Richman: How To Help Fast-Food Workers

Raising the minimum wage will hurt, not help.    Doubling the minimum wage may seem like a good way to help fast-food workers, but it would hurt them instead. So what should we do? We must sweep away the government-created barriers to income earning, barriers that protect established businesses from competition and rob the most    ... MORE

How Government Legally Steals Innocent People's Property

by Isaiah Thompson.     When Rochelle Bing bought her modest row home on a tattered block in North Philadelphia 10 years ago, she saw it as an investment in the future for her extended family — especially for her 18 grandchildren. Bing, 42, works full-time as a home health assistant for the elderly and disabled. In summer when school is out, her     ... MORE

Virginia Gun Crime Drops As State's Firearms Sales Soar

from Fox News.      Amid calls nationwide for stricter gun control laws, Virginia is experiencing a unique trend: the state's gun-related crime is declining but firearms sales are increasing. Firearms sales rose 16 percent to a record 490,119 guns purchased from licensed gun dealers in 2012, according to sales estimates obtained by the Richmond        ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - The Welfare State

Walter E Williams: Would They Be Proud?

Those who struggled for civil rights had higher hopes.     One can't imagine the fear in the hearts of the parents of those nine black students who walked past shouting placard-carrying mobs as they entered Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Each day, they were greeted with angry shouts of "Two, four, six, eight, we don't want to        ... MORE

Using Terrorism Task Force To Make Small-Time Drug Busts

David Martosko on a secretive DEA program.      A secret U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is using terrorism task forces to help local police take down small-time drug dealers, sources have told MailOnline. In a move that is seen by critics as taking valuable resources away from the battle against terrorism, the DEA is using       ... MORE

VIDEO: The Free Market And Equality Under The Law


Highlights from "Testing Milton Friedman."  The full discussion is available at freetochoose.tv

    Most Americans Favor 'Stand Your Ground' Laws

    Quinnipiac University poll reveals inconvenient truth.    Most U.S. voters support the "Stand Your Ground" laws, although the question of whether to retreat or use deadly force in self defense divides Americans along gender, racial and political lines, a national poll found on Friday. The February 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin,    ... MORE

    GUN OWNERS: Don't Let Obama Sign UN Arms Trade Treaty

    by Katie Kieffer.        Your guns are in danger. Obama has stopped defending the Second Amendment. He did not get his gun control agenda passed in the Senate. So, he’s unconstitutionally trying to use the United Nations to control your guns. Don’t let him. Obama is getting dangerously close to signing the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. If he    ... MORE

    Is Uruguay's Marijuana Legalization Vote A Tipping Point?

    Country chooses to stop drug-related violence.    Within weeks, Uruguay is expected to become the first nation to legalize the production, distribution and use of marijuana for its citizens. The South American country's response to incessant drug-related violence in the region signals a quest for alternatives to the U.S.-led war on     ... MORE 

    Nick Gillespie: In Defense Of Alex Rodriguez

    At least, spare us the outrage.     Alex Rodriguez’s career—and Hall of Fame hopes—died for somebody’s sins, but not his. No, the Yankee slugger is simply the latest fall guy for our society’s infantile belief in sports as an imaginary zone somehow separate and apart from the real world, a sort of grown-ups’ version of Chuck E. Cheese’s     ... MORE

    VIDEO: Fox News - NSA Tracking Of American People

    Steven Greenhut: Detroit’s Long Road To The Bottom

    The Motor City’s path to economic ruin.    Californians frustrated by the state’s long-term fiscal situation sometimes throw up their hands and declare that things must get worse before they get better. Let the tax-and-spenders have at it, they say, and then voters eventually will wake up and change their ways. Unfortunately, “eventually” can   ... MORE

    Mike Flynn: Black Teen Unemployment Rate At 41.6%

    And some what to further raise minimum wage.    Friday's jobs report was disappointing, but it also contained a truly heartbreaking statistic. Black teen unemployment is a shocking 41.6%. In July last year, the unemployment was considerably lower, at 36%. That almost half of black teens who want to work can't find jobs is a stain on    ... MORE

    VIDEO: Conrad The Constitution Meets ObamaCare

    15 Government Agents Storm Animal Shelter To Kill Bambi

    Your tax dollars at work.     Government agents swarmed an animal shelter and killed a baby deer named Giggles as Wisconsin law forbids keeping wildlife without the right permit. WISN 12 News reported on a military-style operation in July where nine officers from the Department of Natural Resources and four deputy sheriffs stormed the barn    ... MORE

    Ronald Bailey: The Social Cost Of Carbon

    Garbage In, Garbage Out.     Economists, regulators, and activists all try to calculate the social cost of carbon—that is, the economic and ecological damage caused each time we add a ton of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. If we know how much harm each additional ton of carbon dioxide causes, the thinking goes,   ... MORE